Design, tests and measurements of fast turn-on 3.3 kV asymmetrical thyristor

In this paper, the authors revisit the power thyristor, highlighting the various standard types available. It is shown that for fast turn-on, pulse power applications, the asymmetric design offers the best performance. The preliminary characteristics of a new 3.3 kV high power asymmetric thyristor (ACR) are presented and by comparison with other fast switches, such as GTOs and IGBTs, the ACR is shown to have several performance advantages.